


That One Place With a Ray of Sunlight

by Aeleia (LeiaLibelle)



Category: Undertale (Video Game)
Genre: Alternate Universe, Chara and Frisk are Siblings, Friendship, Gen, Gender Issues, Mute Frisk, No romance but maybe hints of romance, Other Additional Tags to Be Added, Other characters to come maybe, Running Away, They are too young
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-11-20
Updated: 2017-12-04
Packaged: 2019-02-04 15:10:46
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 7,023
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12773670
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/LeiaLibelle/pseuds/Aeleia
Summary: In a world where monsters weren't trapped by humans but chose to hide in Mount Ebott to protect themselves after the war, one young monster decides to cross the forbidden border and enter the human realm.In this dreadful and scary new world, eleven years-old runaway Asriel Dreemurr meets Chara and Frisk, two human siblings living practically alone outside of town. They decide to hide him from the other humans and a tight friendship soon starts to grow between the monster and the twins.





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> Remember when I said I would write another Undertale fanfic someday? Well I forgot to add that it might take a really long while but here it is. I actually started writing this first chapter more than half a year ago but decided not to post it yet since I wouldn't have either the time to update it or enough ideas to continue. But this is a story I really wanted to write and I hope you'll read and like it. Also, I haven't read many other UT fanfics so my apologies in advance if this has been done already.
> 
> This story is set in an alternate universe in which the war between humans and monsters ended differently and the monsters chose to seal themselves inside Mount Ebott to hide from the humans. So instead of monsters not being able to go out, humans are the ones who can't get in. 
> 
> (Please note that while Frisk and Chara both identify as agender in this fic, I might pick a biological gender for them later for the sake of the story. Not sure up to what point gender issues will be relevant to the plot though so I can't say much for now.)

Asriel pressed his hand against the cold stone wall, taking a few moments to catch his breath as he gazed at the sunlight escaping from the exit. He had run all the way to this place without really thinking and doubts started to fill his confused mind, as well as memories of old tales his parents used to tell him when he was younger; stories of a long-lost war, costing the life of many monsters by the hands of merciless and violent creatures. The few that managed to escape had confined themselves inside Mount Ebott, hiding from the humans and never to go outside again. Asriel had imagined the path to the upper world to be guarded or at least hidden. His father the King probably never thought it was even needed to protect it from the inside as well, as no monster would be foolish enough to leave.

Cold air was filtering between the walls and the sound of it echoed eerily in the corridor, as if the mountain itself was warning the young monster of the dangers waiting outside. For a second Asriel thought of going back; but then he remembered his parents shouting angrily at each other, their screams barely muffled by the occasional sound of broken dishes. If his mother learnt he had come to this place, she would probably blame his father for letting the exit unguarded, and they’d only start arguing again. It was the same scene every day, yet they insisted on pretending everything was fine when Asriel was around. He couldn’t take it anymore. Maybe if he disappeared for a while, the worry would bring his parents closer again. That didn’t sound like a great plan, but it was the only one his eleven years old mind could make up.

As the young monster crossed the border separating the underworld from the outside, adjusting his backpack on his frail shoulders and shielding his eyes from the dazzling sunlight with his hand, he could almost hear in the sound of the wind the warnings of his parents he had heard so many times they had become rooted in his mind. He shook them off; nobody believed in these old tales anymore.

***

One thing, at the very least, Asriel Dreemurr was sure about: he had been wrong. He had been so, so terribly wrong and now he had absolutely no idea of what to do. Hidden in the corner of a dark and narrow alley behind a range of garbage containers, he had been unable to move for about half an hour now. The smell of rotten food surrounded him, and the corpse of a dead bird rested a few meters away.

His first moments outside had been wonderful. The sun was even better than he could have imagined; the grass, the trees… everything was so colorful and bright and beautiful. Oblivious of the dangers and his previous fear of being caught before he could be far enough, the young boy had spent a long time lying on the grass, looking at the birds flying from one tree to another and listening to the wind blowing between the branches or just enjoying the warmth of the sunlight. Then, when he had climbed down the mount and had come across this town, with its strangely shaped houses and paved streets and all the smells and sounds he had no idea existed before, he was even happier and excited to make new discoveries and encounters.

But then he had seen them. The _humans._ They weren’t quite as his parents and old Gerson from the Waterfall had described them, so Asriel had maintained hope that, maybe, they weren’t as bad as everyone thought they were—at least, not anymore. Maybe he could just step ahead and talk to them, and they would welcome him friendly. He was still warry though, so he had decided to hide somewhere and observe them first; just to be sure there weren’t any dangers.

And that’s when Asriel found out he was wrong. Hidden in the alley, he had seen countless people walk without paying attention to each other, not even caring to say hello. He had seen someone holding a bottle of liquor shouting nonsensical words at the crowds, mixing in words that Asriel wasn’t allowed to say and would have made his cheeks blush if they weren’t covered in fur. He had seen someone keeping a dog on a leash, pulling it so hard Asriel thought they would strangle the poor creature, and another one scolding a crying, smaller human with rude words. The young monster, of course, was horrified. What if the humans really were as everyone said? Violent and mean creatures, unable of any kind of pity, loving only themselves and killing without a second thought?

It was like waking from a daze and realizing all of a sudden the dreadful situation he was in: alone and powerless, and it was probably by some kind of miracle that he’d managed to get inside the town without being seen in the first place. Asriel was too scared to even move, and many thought started to squabble inside his head. What was going to happen to him? Night was falling and he wasn’t exactly warmly dressed, only wearing a hand-knitted sweater and shorts—the possibility of spending the night outside hadn’t really crossed his mind when he had made his hasty leave. He should never have run away; that was such a terrible decision! He should have listened to his parents and never leave the underworld. He felt like crying now.

Then, suddenly, the young boy heard a voice nearby.

“What? You see something here?”

Asriel froze, closing his eyes as a reflex, as if blinding himself would somehow make him invisible. The voice was high-pitched like that of a child and he could hear light footsteps coming closer. Shaking, he opened an eye and his fears came true: someone had seen him. There were two of them, about as tall as him and wearing matching striped shirts. Maybe they were children after all… but again, he couldn’t be sure with humans.

“You’re right!” the first one exclaimed. “There really is something there! Hey, come out!”

The young monster looked around trying to find an escape route but leaving the alley would mean letting the other humans spot him. If these two were indeed children, that would make them less… dangerous than the other ones, probably. Suddenly he remembered an advice he’d heard from his mother a long time ago, something about not letting your fear show. He gathered all the courage inside him and got up, making only a few steps towards the humans.

They both had the same brown hair and their faces looked similar; although, to be perfectly honest, every single human Asriel had seen until now looked just the same to him. The only difference he could make out between the two in front of him was that one had a green shirt and the other had a blue one.

“Woah, it’s a goat!” the green shirt chanted enthusiastically. “Hey, little goat! Say something!”

“I- I’m not a goat!” Asriel did his best to try and sound confident. “I’m a monster!”

“It’s talking!” the human screamed, looking somehow fascinated.

“Don’t call me ‘it’! I’m a boy, a- and my name is Asriel.”

The human kept quiet, staring at Asriel with eyes full of curiosity; or, at least, the young boy hoped it was curiosity. He joined his hands anxiously, wondering what they would do to him or what they were thinking at this moment. But as the striped shirt humans remained silent, he suddenly heard louder voices coming closer and he jumped back, starting to panic. They were coming over here!

The humans looked at him, then at where the voices were coming from, and then at him again before they started smiling out of the blue. Before Asriel could even react, the green shirt one grabbed his hand and started to pull him away.

“W- Wait!” Asriel screamed. “Where are you…”

“Be quiet!”

The order was so sudden and firm that Asriel automatically complied, and he let the human lead him by the hand to another empty street. When they were sure nobody was following them, the human wearing a blue shirt squat a little and took off the backpack Asriel just noticed they were carrying. Without a word they opened it and pulled out a light blue sweater from inside it.

“Good idea!” the green shirt said.

They took it and gave it to Asriel. The monster boy looked at the piece of clothing without understanding before he realized it had a hood. Right; hiding his head would probably help not drawing too much attention. He told himself to remember this for his next runaway to a forbidden and possibly very dangerous place.

Once he had slipped on the hoodie, bending down a little to hide his face more efficiently and pulling his hands inside his pockets, the humans gave him a satisfied look.

“Alright, now follow us!”

To be perfectly honest, Asriel still had many doubts about this, but at least the two humans were seemingly helping him, so he figured he could probably trust them. He followed them around the town, looking down and sticking the closest to them as he could. That way, he probably wouldn’t be able to remember the path they took, but it was better than risking to be found out by the other humans. Still, whenever they passed too close to one of them, Asriel could feel his heart pounding violently in his chest and his hands shaking inside his pockets. Sometimes he would realize that he’d been holding his breath for a few seconds and had to force himself to calm down and breathe. He had never been more scared in his entire life and, at every turn they took, he strongly hoped that they would finally reach a safer place.

After what seemed like an eternity, the paved ground was replaced by dirt and grass at last and even without looking up Asriel could know that they had exited town. The humans and he kept walking about a minute or two before they finally stopped, and Asriel was told he could pull his hood down. When he did, he noticed they were in the middle of a grassy path with huge trees on each side.

“Our house is just a bit further into the woods,” the green shirt said. “There will be no one around at this hour so it’s safe to go!”

Asriel shook his head timidly as both humans were smiling at him, seemingly amused by this situation while he felt like he could faint anytime now.

“Oh, I’m Chara, by the way!” the human added. “And this is Frisk.”

The other one waved their hand in a greeting gesture.

“Are you two children?” Asriel asked in a shy voice.

“Can’t you tell?” Chara laughed at the question.

“W- Well, I thought you might be, since you’re not as tall as the others I saw… and also you’re wearing striped shirts like normal children, but I’ve never seen a human before, so…”

“Really? Where do you come from?”

“That’s…”

He hesitated. They didn’t seem like bad people, but even a child like him could tell that carelessly revealing the entrance to Mount Ebott could endanger his whole species, and that was a risk he wasn’t very eager to take.

“Well, it doesn’t matter,” Chara quickly said, as if they’d figured out he didn’t want to answer. “But yeah, we’re kids. You’re one too, right? We’re twelve years old; what about you?”

“I’m eleven.”

At this point, Asriel was pretty sure that the two of them were siblings, but he was too scared of embarrassing himself again to ask for confirmation. Just as he couldn’t bring himself to ask them if they were boys or girls. Or maybe humans didn’t actually have a gender, like ghosts? In any case he had always been told by his parents to be very careful when encountering a new species of monster for the first time to not ask indiscrete questions like, “is this hat really part of your body?” or “are you walking on your arms or are those actually just arm-shaped legs?” so he decided he would be as neutral as possible when addressing to them for the time being.

They all started walking again, sinking deeper and deeper into the woods. Night was falling and already Asriel couldn’t see the sun in the light orange sky anymore. The air was getting colder too, and birds were chirping everywhere around, as if they were warning every living thing in the woods to hurry to their home before everything turned dark.

“So, Asriel, right?” Chara said after a while. “What were you doing alone in that place? Did you get lost or something?”

“S- Something like that…”

“You shouldn’t get too close from the other people. If they see you, they’ll want to capture you and make experiments on you!”

Asriel froze, staring at Chara in terror.

“W- What kind of experiments?” he asked.

“Some bad, bad things! Like injecting poison into your veins to see if you’ll survive, and stuff! And then, when they’re done…”

“When they’re done?” Asriel repeated, almost whispering.

“They’ll dissect you!” Chara shouted—and Asriel screamed along.

The other child suddenly hit Chara’s shoulder, frowning disapprovingly. They started moving their hands quickly, making weird gestures that made Asriel a bit confused.

“I was just messing with him a bit!” Chara whined.

They rubbed their shoulder before looking at Asriel again.

“Frisk can’t speak,” they explained when they saw his confused face. “So they talk with their hands instead. It’s called sign language.”

“Oh…”

Asriel didn’t know what else to say. He thought about apologizing, but maybe that would be even ruder, so he kept quiet. Frisk was smiling gently. There was something about them that Asriel found appeasing, and somehow, it made him think about his mother when she told him stories near the fireplace. He would sit on her knees and close his eyes, his mind completely at peace. The comparison was too awkward for him to tell Frisk about it, but that’s the first picture that popped in his mind when he saw the angelic smile.

“Don’t worry too much about it,” Chara interrupted his train of thought. “Most people always avoid talking to them directly when they find out, as if they couldn’t hear! Grown-ups are dumb.”

Asriel couldn’t agree more to that statement. Although he loved his parents very much, sometimes he just couldn’t tell what they were thinking.

They eventually reached a narrower path leading them to a two-story house surrounded by trees. The paint on the walls was crumbling and some parts were covered in ivy to the point that it would probably be impossible to remove it anymore. There were blue shutters at the windows and a chimney, but there was nothing more to notice about the house. No flowers or any other ornament, and the garden didn’t seem to be maintained at all. In fact, it could have been easily mistaken for a deserted house.

“That’s our home,” Chara said. “Well, it’s more our uncle’s house, actually. It’s kinda shabby but it’s outside of town, so that’s pretty cool.”

“Is it okay for me to come in?” Asriel asked.

“Yeah, don’t worry! Uncle and Auntie only come home in an hour. But let’s not make too much noise, just in case.”

He nodded and they led him inside. They climbed the stairs right next to the entrance and entered a big room that Asriel assumed was the children’s bedroom. It had two beds, a desk, two shelves and a closet, and there was a large carpet with pillows in the middle. There were old stuffed toys and clothes lying around and it was somewhat dusty in the corners, but overall the room seemed pretty cozy. At least it was a nice change for Asriel. He was always getting mad at his mother for cleaning his room all the time. He couldn’t count the times he had had to search in the garbage for stuff she mistakenly threw away or the times he couldn’t find a shirt or a toy because his mother had rearranged everything while he was out.

“Your place is nice!” he said politely.

“It’s alright, I guess,” Chara shrugged.

Suddenly Asriel felt something poke his cheek and he jumped. Frisk was standing next to him and looking very closely at his face with a curious expression.

“Oh, I want to touch his fur too!” Chara exclaimed.

Without even bothering to ask and before Asriel could say anything, they started petting the top of his head gently.

“Wow, it’s so soft!” they said excitedly. “Will you grow horns when you’re older, like goats do?”

“I already have horns!” Asriel felt slightly offended. “I’m not a child anymore!”

“No way! I don’t see anything.”

“They’re just too small to see yet!”

He covered the top of his head with his hands and pulled himself away. It was a bit embarrassing, but his horns had always been a delicate subject, even though his mother kept on telling him that they were perfectly fine for a monster of his age.

The humans were still smiling. It felt a little strange, seeing how they didn’t seem weirded out by the situation at all.

“Are you two not scared?” the young boy asked.

“Why?”

“Because… I’m a monster.”

Chara and Frisk glanced at each other.

“You don’t look that threatening.”

Frisk nodded in approval.

“I’m afraid of humans,” Asriel confessed. “Everyone always said bad things about them, like they’re evil and they kill for fun.”

The children kept quiet for a while and Asriel felt a bit ashamed of himself.

“Are you afraid of us?” Chara eventually asked.

Asriel shook his head. Curiously, he wasn’t thinking of Chara or Frisk as frightening anymore.

“Then it’s okay! I think some humans are scary too.”

Their tone was slightly off when they said this, but Asriel didn’t want to pry too much so he didn’t make any comment.

He peaked at the window. It was dark outside already. He knew it was too late to go back even if he wanted to now, and he was starting to feel more and more anxious. The humans looked at each other and Frisk started signing something that made Chara frown a little.

“What are they saying?” Asriel asked.

“They’re asking if you want to go home,” Chara translated.

Asriel looked down. He wasn’t sure what he wanted anymore. When he’d left his house that morning, he just wanted to be somewhere else—anywhere else. But now, in that foreign and scary place with no one around to protect him, he just wished he could be in his bed, eating a slice of pie his mother made and not worrying about a single thing.

“You can stay here, if you want,” Chara said in a rather hesitant voice. “Nobody ever enters this room, so no one will find you here. You… you look like you don’t really want to go home.”

They looked a little down before adding:

“I can tell. Sometimes I don’t want to go home either.”

Asriel didn’t know what he wanted to do. There were so many distinct emotions bottled inside him at this moment—mostly anxiety and guilt, but also anger and frustration. He wasn’t ready to go home yet. He didn’t want to face his parents, and he didn’t want to deal with anything complicated. What was so wrong with wanting to escape from reality anyway? He was so tired of his life back home.

He nodded, unable to say anything. He felt like crying, but he held back his tears; because he didn’t want his new friends to see him cry, and because he wasn’t a child anymore anyway.

***

They spent the evening chatting in the bedroom. The children asked many questions about Asriel and the other monsters, and Asriel asked about how humans lived. He was surprised to find out that no one thought monsters were real anymore, whereas everyone in Mount Ebott knew about the existence of humans. But humans, he learned, lived short lives compared to some species of monsters, so he could see everyone forgetting about a war that happened a long, long time ago.

Asriel also learned a few things about Chara and Frisk: they were indeed siblings and in fact were a peculiar kind of siblings called “twins”, which Asriel only vaguely understood as “siblings that look a lot like each other”. They didn’t have parents, but they were living with their mother’s brother and his wife who both worked in the village most of the time.

When the twins’ uncle and aunt came home they didn’t go downstairs to welcome them and only left the room when they heard their aunt call for dinner. And then, they got back less than five minutes later with plates of cheese sandwiches and fruits they shared with the young monster. Asriel didn’t ask anything about why they weren't eating with their family, still unsure of how humans’ customs and habits worked.

Then, when they all agreed that they were yawning way too much, Chara pushed one bed next to the other and pulled another blanket from a closet that they set in the middle to fill the gap between the mattresses. Each bed was large enough for two children to fit in, but Chara had thought it would be funnier for the three of them to sleep together with Asriel in the middle and the monster fully agreed. It was like having the siblings he’d always wished he had or having friends over. Having more than one child was impossible for his own species and there weren’t many monsters his age where he lived.

The exhaustion of the day quickly caught up and even sleeping in a foreign bed for the very first time didn’t stop him from falling into a heavy slumber…


	2. Chapter 2

When Asriel woke up under the unfamiliar ceiling, he realized he was still fully clothed and wearing the hoodie Frisk had lent him the day before. It was a bit too hot and uncomfortable so he decided to get up and slowly and carefully started crawling towards the end of the beds. The twins were still asleep and he didn’t want to wake them up. He took off the hoodie and sat on the floor, his back resting against one of the beds.

He started thinking about his parents. Surely they would have noticed that he was gone by now, but maybe his parents didn’t know that he had gone outside of Mount Ebott yet. That would only be a matter of time though. If his father sent all his guards to look for him everywhere in the monster’s realm, it wouldn’t be too long before they searched the whole place.

Asriel tilted his head a bit, looking at the ceiling. The white paint was crumbling and turning yellow at places. It’s not like it would make any difference if they knew where he was: his father would never cross the border anyway. He was the king, and the king couldn’t put his people at a risk. Asriel had always come after his responsibilities. His mother though… she would be worried sick. Maybe _she_ would come outside of Mount Ebott to look for him. He wasn’t sure if he wanted that to happen or not.

He was so lost in his thoughts that he didn’t notice the sound of one of the twins getting up and almost jumped when a round face with messy brown hair appeared right above him. He couldn’t tell by look which one of the human siblings it was but when the child started smiling at him and waving a hand he assumed it was Frisk. The other one still appeared to be asleep.

“Hello,” Asriel whispered.

Frisk got up and quietly crossed the room. When they reached the door they waved at Asriel to make him follow them. Asriel hesitated for a second.

“Is it okay to get out?” he asked.

Last thing he wanted was to be seen by the twin’s guardians. They could have been nice people, but he figured there had to be a reason they kept him a secret for them. Frisk simply nodded and made a “come here” sign with their hand again, so Asriel obeyed. They didn’t go downstairs but led him to a room at the other side of the corridor instead. It was a small bathroom with blue walls, a bathtub and a window that hadn’t been cleaned in a long while. Frisk gently pushed him inside as if to tell him to feel free to use the room if he wanted.

“Oh, uh, thank you,” he said.

Frisk nodded again and went back to the room. Asriel stayed standing for a few seconds, still a bit hesitant of what to do, but then Frisk came back with a pile of clothes in their hands, that they dropped in the monster’s arms. After that, the child searched for a clean towel to give him, showed him how the shower in the bathtub worked, pointed a pile of care products and soap to him and finally exited the bathroom with a short wave, closing the door after them. It was a bit unsettling, not being able to properly talk to them—well he _could_ talk but without any way of getting an answer, what would be the point? Sure he had known some monsters unable to talk before, but it felt different this time. He wondered how long it would take to learn that “sign language” thing.

Asriel wasn’t exactly fond of showers—he hated getting his fur wet—but for once he genuinely enjoyed the hot water and fruits-perfumed shampoos. Once he was all clean and dry enough to put on some clothes, he chose a pair of shorts and a t-shirt from the pile Frisk had left here. The clothes smelled different from what he was used to and it made him feel a bit nostalgic. He then looked at the mirror; he hated how being wet made his fur tangle in weird ways. He picked a hairbrush and attempted to fix it for a while but he knew it wouldn’t be back to normal before he was completely dry.

When he got back to the bedroom, Chara and Frisk were already fully dressed and Chara was holding a small item in their hands. It took a few seconds for Asriel to realize he recognized the thing: a white and green cellphone with a yellow flower strap. He gasped.

“Don’t touch that!”

He wanted to take it from their hands but Chara started running with the thing in their hands.

“You have a phone!” they said, admiring the cellphone like it was some kind of treasure. “How do you turn it on?”

“You can’t turn it on!” Asriel was getting nervous. “What if my mom calls?”

“I’ll tell her I ate you,” said Chara with a demonic smile.

Asriel didn’t like the remark but he knew Chara was trying to mess around with him, just like the day before. He wasn’t going to play by their game this time.

“Oh, really?” he said, crossing his arms and trying to sound unimpressed. “Well then she’ll send the guards on you.”

“I’m not afraid of an army of goats,” Chara grunted—but Asriel could see in their eyes that they weren’t as confident as before now.

“The guards are scaaary. They have spears and armors too, and they’re really strong and huge.”

“You’re lying.”

“Am not.”

Chara gave him an angry stare and Asriel did his best to not show any emotion. To be honest he wasn’t sure his mother would actually send guards here, but Chara didn’t know that.

“Whatever,” the human eventually said. “I don’t care about your stupid cellphone anyway!”

They threw the thing at him and he barely managed not to let it drop on the floor.

“Be careful, you could break it!”

“Why do you care if you’re not gonna use it?”

Asriel frowned. He had taken the cellphone with him when he left, telling himself he wasn’t going to use it. It made him feel safe just to have it with him.

“And why are you going through my things?” Asriel asked in return, pointing at his opened backpack on the bed.

Chara was going to growl an answer but suddenly Frisk’s hand was on their mouth, the other one patting their twin on the shoulder in a gesture probably meant to calm them down. Frisk then grabbed Chara’s hand and dragged them to Asriel. They stood there waiting until Chara reluctantly grumbled something that sounded like “sorry I took your stuff”. Frisk nodded and the other twin crossed their arms like they were pouting. The scene was so funny that Asriel couldn’t hold back a laugh. Chara stared at him with seemingly very offended eyes but it only took a few seconds before they started giggling as well, and soon enough the three of them were laughing hysterically together.

“S… Stop laughing!” Chara chuckled.

“What are you going to do?” Asriel answered. “ _Eat_ me?”

That made the children burst out laughing again, to the point that Asriel had to hold his stomach and Frisk ended up lying on the floor.

“I’m sure you wouldn’t taste good,” Chara said with a grin.

Eventually they managed to calm down and stood there for a while until Chara’s tummy made a weird noise, reviving their laughter but also making them aware they were starting to get hungry.

The twins’ guardians, Asriel soon learned, were out of the house most of the time on weekdays so they basically had the house for themselves. When they told him that he couldn’t help feeling jealous. Sure his parents worked a lot too but he always had an adult keeping an eye on him and seldom was left on his own.

When the children came downstairs, Frisk started opening the fridge and stared at its content for a while before turning at Asriel. They signed something at Chara.

“What is it?” Asriel asked.

Chara seemed to be hesitant as well.

“Do you, er… do you eat meat?”

Asriel stared at them blankly.

“Meat?” He wasn’t sure he understood the question. “You mean like snails?”

“Ew, no!” Chara exclaimed. “Do YOU eat snails?”

“N-No, of course not.”

He did, in fact, but judging from the twins’ reaction, that wasn’t considered normal over here.

“We meant like, real meat? From animals?”

“I’m not sure,” Asriel confessed. “We don’t have a lot of animals where I’m from.”

“What do you usually eat?”

“I guess, vegetables and fried food, or pie… oh and I like sausages too. Do you have water sausages?”

“What’s a… _water_ sausage?” Chara seemed slightly disgusted.

They all looked at each other for a while.

“The sandwiches from yesterday were good,” Asriel eventually said.

“I guess we can just give you vegetarian stuff for now. Frisk doesn’t like meat a lot either anyway.”

Frisk nodded, smiling peacefully.

The twins then proceeded to take a lot of different things from the shelves and the fridge and gather everything on a table to share with their monster friend. They ate cereal, bread and fruits and Asriel insisted on tasting every sort of jam they had, very excited by all the new flavors. Chara also made bacon and eggs for themselves; Asriel found the smell pretty awful but his friend gulped it like it was the most delicious thing ever. Seeing how different the twin’s eating habits were from each other—Frisk was more of a slow and picky eater, carefully checking every piece before taking it to their mouth, while Chara showed a gargantuan appetite and didn’t seem to mind making a mess—Asriel thought that in many aspects the two humans were almost the opposite of the other. Yet they had some kind of complicity between them, something with the looks they exchanged at times or the way they seemed to naturally understand each other.

***

After they were done with breakfast, the twins took Asriel outside to show him the surroundings. The path to their house, as they explained, led to an abandoned well a bit further that had been plugged years ago. Nowadays the only people except them that traveled down the path were either lost tourists or campers, but the chances they saw either at this time of the year were almost inexistent, so they didn’t have to worry about being seen around there.    

The weather was nice that day, although a bit windy. The sunlight helped finishing drying Asriel’s white fur, making it so bright and fluffy that the twins kept reaching to his head or arms to touch it, ignoring his complaints and embarrassment.

The humans’ house was mostly surrounded by the trees and apart from the path leading downtown, you had to go through the forest for a while without anything to guide you before you could reach manmade paths again. One way you would eventually find wide grass fields with cows and horses while the other way just led further into the forest. Without knowing the area one could easily get lost and wander in the woods for a while before finding their way again. Fortunately, the children seemed to know the place like the inside of their pockets.

After showing Asriel around, they walked for fifteen minutes between the trees before they reached what Chara called their secret hideout. It wasn’t actually secret, Frisk reminded them, as it was their uncle that had built it years ago on their very insistent demand. The small treehouse was built between the branches of a huge pine tree and you could only reach it by climbing a rope ladder. It couldn’t exactly be described as good craftsmanship; the logs used to make the walls and roof were all unevenly sized and there were many holes in the construction, some of them roughly plugged by small wooden boards pinned with rusted nails. Apparently their uncle had made the foundations at the time and the twins had spent years improving the cabin, finding materials wherever they could find it.

Needless to say, Asriel had stars in his eyes. He turned around the tree a few times to look at every side of it, constantly shouting things like “amazing!” or “that’s so cool!” and barely containing his excitement. Chara and Frisk stared at him the whole time with trembling smiles and pink cheeks, they too unable to hide how proud and happy they were to show off their work to a friend for the first time in their life.

The inside of the treehouse had just enough space for the three of them to get comfortable. There was an old round and thick carpet on the floor and a blue protective canvas was stitched to the ceiling, probably to prevent water from getting inside from the holes. Around the corners there was a pile of old blankets, a few cushions to sit on, some dusty toys, notebooks and crayons. The children fought for which cushion to take for a while before Chara showed Asriel their “treasure box”, a metal box mostly containing oddly-shaped rocks and dried dead reptiles and insects or small animal bones. Their most prized possession was a squirrel’s tail they had found in the forest once and had managed to properly dry to keep it in good condition. Asriel had never seen a squirrel before but felt sorry for it for a while.

Frisk didn’t seem very interested in the dead things gallery, but as soon as they could snatch Asriel’s attention from their twin they showed him a book with pictures of strange animals. There were so many species that Asriel couldn’t believe they all existed. Frisk started from the beginning of the book and after a while they just skipped less interesting pages to only stop at their favorites, pointing the name of the animal for Asriel to read out loud; sometimes Chara had to correct his pronunciation. Asriel found it very interesting but after a few minutes Chara got bored and forcedly closed the book to get the attention on them again. Asriel saw Frisk frown and for a moment got worried the siblings would get in a fight but nothing happened in the end, although Frisk seemed a bit angry at their twin for some time after that.

***

They spent all morning like this and would probably have stayed longer if not for their growing hunger. They raced home (Chara won, but only because they cheated) and Frisk made some cheese pasta they ate together before going to their room again, not caring much about the pile of dished they left in the sink.

Before they could think of anything to do, Asriel took his chance to ask if they could teach him the sign language thing. When he asked, he thought he saw Frisk’s face light up.

“I don’t want to,” Chara whined. “That would take way too long and it’s boring.”

 “You don’t have to teach me everything. Just a few words! Please?”

“No, I wanna play cards!”

Frisk signed something Chara refused to translate. They were getting angry but Asriel insisted anyway.

“Why don’t you teach him then!” they shouted at Frisk. “I’m gonna watch a movie.”

They walked to the corner of the room and Asriel only now noticed the small vintage TV set on a shelf. Chara sat on a cushion on the floor and played some VHS while Asriel and Frisk moved to the bed and sat in front of each other.

Frisk took out a notepad and wrote all the letters of the alphabet on a page before putting it in front of them. They pointed at the letter A and made a fist with their hand, with the thumb pointing out. Asriel mimicked them and Frisk nodded in approval. They did the same for the next letters, every time waiting for Asriel to get the gesture right. Some of them Asriel found pretty easy to remember, like the sign for “C” that looked just like the letter itself, but he knew he wouldn’t be able to memorize them all right away. Some letters were also hard for him to sign considering human sign language was, well, adapted to human hands, but since his main goal was to understand Frisk he didn’t felt the need to be able to sign perfectly himself. Frisk was very patient though and they repeated the alphabet over and over together.

Asriel noticed Chara peaking at them sometimes, pretending not to care but probably feeling jealous they weren’t part of this. They raised the volume of the TV and laughed very loud on purpose every five minutes in hopes to get their attention or at least bother them enough so that they would give up and see the movie with them. It was annoying but Asriel was absorbed in the task, and after some time Chara stopped trying.

Learning with Frisk was unexpectedly very fun. Asriel didn’t hate learning but his mother and teachers were quite strict most of the time and he couldn’t say he ever looked forward to it. This time was different; maybe because it was a friend teaching him instead. By the end of the day he had learnt so sign his and the twin’s names and Frisk also taught him a few words like “sky” or “love”. They drew tiny hands under the alphabet letters so that Asriel could revise them later. When Chara realized they could teach him how to sign curse words they immediately got more interested and joined them at the end. They weren’t a patient or good teacher so Asriel didn’t remember most of them but he probably wouldn’t dare using them anyway—although he found the idea of being able to use forbidden words in a way no one could understand very amusing.

***

The funny times ended when the twins’ guardians got home. They heard their aunt calling the twins and both went downstairs, leaving Asriel alone in the room. He soon started to hear arguing and slightly opened the door. He still couldn’t get all the words from here but he soon understood the fight was about Chara and Frisk leaving a mess in the kitchen. Chara did most of the screaming, arguing at everything in the loudest voice possible and throwing angry tantrums. Asriel worriedly waited for the fight to be over and when he finally heard footsteps towards the staircase, he moved away from the door and waited standing in the middle of the room.

Chara was the first to come in and as soon as Frisk entered as well, Chara shut the door closed with enough power to make the walls shake. Eyes red with tears, they went to their bed and hid under the covers. Frisk glanced at Asriel with timid eyes. They started signing something but stopped, instead reaching for a piece of paper and a pencil on the floor. They gave the note to Asriel.

_Sorry._

“Are you okay?” Asriel whispered.

They nodded and started writing again.

_Chara and our aunt and uncle don’t get along very well._

“Why?”

They shrugged in a way that was more an “I don’t want to talk about it” than an “I don’t know” and Asriel didn’t feel it was his place to insist. He had had fights with his parents, but never that intense; most of the times his mother would come to his room soon after it to calm him down with her soft voice, rubbing his back for a while. This felt different and it made him feel uncomfortable—and a bit sad.

He remembered Chara telling him they sometimes didn’t want to go home and he felt like he started to understand why.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Please write a comment and tell me what you think of this story so far, it would make me very happy c:


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